No beer for submarine

Tuesday

Sep 9, 2008 at 3:15 AMSep 9, 2008 at 5:19 AM

By GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr.

PORTSMOUTH — Plans for a commemorative beer for the USS New Hampshire have sunk.

A federal agency has declined a request for Smuttynose Brewery Co. to release a commemorative beer honoring the new submarine's arrival, and now the committee working to raise money to assure a grand celebration for the commissioning of the sub next month is struggling to find the necessary funds.

The group needs to raise $300,000 to make the commissioning of the Virgina-Class submarine a milestone event in the Port City, but has raised just under half that amount and is on a tight deadline with the event slated for Oct. 25.

Leaders said they are hoping to see more financial support in coming weeks so they don't have to scale back the celebration.

"We are plugging away and doing everything to pull in the necessary funds. The ship was delivered eight months early and that's a great thing unless you are on our end," said Bruce Clark, president of the state's Navy League and the chair of the community commissioning committee.

The committee has been working since May to raise funds and get exposure for the submarine's commissioning at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, but members say they have run into a summer where budgets are tight and weather-related emergencies have made funding or exposure even harder to come by.

Clark said Gov. John Lynch was slated to do a public service address letting residents known about the commissioning and its importance, but he said a tornado and other disasters contributed to a situation where that has yet to happen.

The latest challenge came when organizers found out about a fundraising campaign that isn't going to happen.

Smuttynose owner Peter Egelston's company was planning to release approximately 18,000 bottles of "Granite Ghost Ale" for sale in advance of the Oct. 25 commissioning of the submarine with portions of the proceeds going to help support regional efforts to celebrate the event, but he said the beer won't be brewed.

The plan was "scuttled" when the Tax and Trade Bureau — the federal regulatory authority responsible for approving beer labels — said the brewery must get U.S. Navy approval for their submarine-emblazoned beer label design and military representatives would not provide such written authorization.

"Unfortunately we got caught up in the bureaucracy and it's disappointing, but not entirely surprising considering the thicket of regulations that are involved," said Egelston on Monday.

Those looking to whet their collective palates with the celebratory pale ale will be disappointed with the decision, but perhaps most disheartened are the members of a commissioning committee who have been working feverishly on a short deadline to assured they have the funds needed to make the commissioning a truly big event for the state, region and a recently endangered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The commemorative beer was the brainchild of Egelston who came up with the idea during a conversation with Doug Bates, president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

The name of the beer was chosen by the crew of the submarine and reflects their public radio handle.

The planned orange and blue label showed a submarine and an image of New Hampshire also bearing the name of the shipyard.

Bates, who also serves as the vice president of the commissioning committee, said the news is another hit as they struggle to raise the funds necessary to support ceremonies that are expected to draw upward of 150,000 people to the Portsmouth area.

"This was a clever idea and it's a New Hampshire brewery. This was a perfect way to celebrate. We got all the work done, we submitted it, and a man sitting in Washington, D.C., interpreted it not in our direction. We have no time left," said Bates.

Egelston has spent the past 20 years submitting label designs to the federal regulators and noted that the rules are often subject to wide interpretation with a previous Shipyard Brewing special beer, commemorating the 2005 commissioning of the USS Maine submarine, having received approval.

The brewery owner said he usually submits design ideas and has time to negotiate changes, but he said the current timeline does not allow this so they decided to pull the plug on the beer idea approximately two weeks ago.

Information listed on Egelston's beer blog gives viewers a description of the federal regulatory laws governing decisions on beer labels. They closely restrict what can be on labels to assure consumers don't mistakingly assume a particular business, organization or military branch is endorsing a product.

Egelston indicated the specialist from the Tax and Trade Bureau expressed concerns that the Granite Ghost Ale label had text that could be construed as associating it with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard — a U.S. Navy facility. A copy of the bureau response posted on the Smuttynose website, also has the specialist raising concerns that the seal on the label closely resembles that of the USS New Hampshire.

Egelston said federal regulators asked Smuttynose to get the permission of the U.S. Navy.

"We certainly talked to the Navy and went in front of their legal department. They said they were happy we were doing the project, but they wouldn't put anything in writing. The TTB needed written statement saying they supported it," said Egelston.

The brewery owner said the time frame and decision has left them with no way of contributing.

"We make beer ... that's what we are all about and that was going to be our contribution," said Egelston.

Bates said his committee is still scrambling to raise the estimated $300,000 they think they will need to pay for celebratory events surrounding the actual one-hour commissioning ceremony at the shipyard, which is being paid for by the Navy.

Clark said the city itself will not be directly funding the event and the organization still needs funding and exposure.

"We are hoping the state gets behind this (financially) and helps get us over the top. A lot of people in the state still don't know what this is about," said Clark.

Bates expressed frustration they have had to put the funding and the events together in a matter of five months when such activities in other cities have involved upward of 10 months to a year in planning and fundraising.

"Because we don't have 10 months, we have a gun to our head. This is a statewide event and it's been like pulling teeth to get people to help us," said Bates.

The chamber president noted the commission committee is tasked with raising funding to support advertising, a breakfast for 3,000 people, a VIP event at the Wentworth By the Sea for 325 people and many functions relating to activities planned for the submarine's crew and families.

The group is reportedly close to getting a sponsor to support a $15,000 effort to get a "jumbotron" positioned in Prescott Park so that the general public, not having seats at the shipyard, can watch the submarine's commissioning.

Bates said the commission committee has had concerns about the short window of time and funding since "day one" considering that the event is of huge importance, particularly in celebrating and supporting the "gold standard nature" of a Portsmouth Naval Shipyard he called an "economic powerhouse for this area."

Those interested in learning more about the commissioning committee or wanting to help can go to www.ussnewhampshire.org.